Have you ever had dealings with members of the Mormon Church? No, I don't mean the clean cut young men riding around on their bicycles with their backpacks. I mean family members or friends that are devout and I mean DEVOUT members of the mormon church.
Recently I had such an encounter and I want to tell about it. First, a little about me. I was born in 1940 and until the age of 13 was raised by my Grandmother. At the time I was growing up, she had no connection with any religious institutions and as far as I can remember never talked about religion.
I, therefore, had no connection with religion; something I thank my Grandmother for daily.
My wife and I raised five children. Two of them, my oldest daughter and my only son, turned to "god". My oldest daughter passed away several years ago but my son still thrives with his brood in sunny Oklahoma and all of them to a person are members of the Mormon cult er..church.
Even though all of my son's children are DEVOUT Mormons, one of them is more vocal than the others about her beliefs. I had a facebook account (now deactivated) that I used to keep in touch with the family and this particular daughter at times would proselytize her beliefs on facebook. When she did I would then place an article next to hers that either refuted what she said or championed science in some way to negate her belief. Obviously this would upset her so we finally came to a mutual understanding that to keep the peace...no more religion..no more anti-religion. It worked for awhile.
Recently she placed a paragraph on facebook saying she believed that Elder Holland was an angel walking around in a man's body. I wasn't sure whether this was supposed to be a joke or something serious so before I responded to her I wanted to find out who this supposed "angel" was. It turns out that this Elder Holland is Jeffery Holland, one of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles of the LDS cult..er church. Yes, that's right he is one of the 12 apostles of the LDS cult..er church and is considered a prophet. That in itself was quite a revelation to me. I always thought, but never really knew, that the 12 apostles were the dudes who hung around with the original yaweh guy. So to find out more about this supposed prophet, I googled his name. Many things came up but one that struck me as odd was a letter written by Thomas Phillips to Elder Holland in May of 2012.
Now this Thomas Phillips is no ordinary guy of the street. Thomas Phillips spent 33 years plus in the LDS cult er..church, was Bishop,Stake President, Area Executive Secretary, etc. and had received the second endowment of the cult er..church which only very few others had ever received. The letter that he wrote to Elder Holland was then quite shocking to me then since it questioned the very tenets of the LDS cult..er church. Google "My letter to Elder Holland" and you will see for yourself. The letter basically asks Elder Holland the question...Is the Book of Mormon true or is it a false document. He asks specific questions such as....How can you prove that the earth is 6,000 years old? Is it true that there was NO death of any living species before Adam? Why does the Book of Mormon lie about the origin of the American Indian and many more. The answer he received back from Elder Holland was true Mormon full of obfuscation and non answers and did not specifically address any of the questions asked by Mr. Phillips.
With this very limited research in hand I was ready to at least address my Granddaughter's statement about this man being an angel in a man's body. I placed a statement below hers saying that since I had no idea who this Elder Holland was, I had googled his name and had found a letter written by a Mormon to Elder Holland that she may want to read and that it may change her mind about him.
The response I got from this family was truly astounding. From my son's children....You are a bully...grow up and be a man...stop bullying my sister...how dare you question our faith....(from my Grandson) you are disgusting...and finally from my own son....If you do this again I will "direct" her to unfriend you. Mind you all of these statements and many more came from my own family.
I will never look on this family again as I did before this dust up. These people are truly fanatical about their beliefs and unwilling or unable to question any statement made by Joseph Smith or statements in the Book of Mormon (their bible).
I will have much more to say about the mormon faith as I delve into it more but for now I will only say this is a personal example of why I despise religion and it's teachings.
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